Rolling average for new COVID cases in Kansas City area falls to lowest in over a year
The Kansas City metro added less than 50 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, dropping the rolling average for new cases to a level not seen in over a year.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 48 new cases for a total of 148,749 to date.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases fell to 56. The average has not been this low since May 23, 2020, according to data maintained by The Star. One week ago, the average sat at 91 and two weeks ago, it was 128.
Johnson County leads vaccine efforts in the metro with 47.4% of its residents fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is followed by Platte County at 34.8%, Jackson County at 33.7%, Clay County at 32.5% and Wyandotte County at 30.2%.
Two patients were being treated for the virus at The University of Kansas Health System, down from six on Friday.
The low number of hospitalizations shows that vaccination works, said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control.
“Anybody from 12 and older, please get vaccinated because we are showing that it does work,” he said. “We’ve seen that around the country as well — a very significant drop in the rolling seven-day average of cases.”
The metro added nine deaths in the past week, with a total of 2,220 deaths since the pandemic began.
On Tuesday, Missouri confirmed 511,666 total cases including 9,080 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 4.3%.
The state has administered 4,541,965 vaccine doses, with 41.8% of the population initiating vaccination. Missouri has received 5,910,925 doses, the CDC said.
Kansas reported 313,997 total cases including 5,076 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 2.7%.
The state has distributed 2,756,320 vaccine doses. Of those, 2,177,718 have been administered, with 41.9% of the population initiating vaccination.
Across the country, more than 33.2 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 594,650 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
